He began speaking as he came through the doors, and it was almost funny the way the others all scurried to attention and scraped and bowed. Then the man made an imperious gesture of the hand, and the clamor of voices ceased, and the scurrying ceased, and the man stepped aside to let the woman with him go past.

She was tiny, Mina saw, very slender and very little taller than Mina herself, and she moved with grace, like a dancer. Her hair, too, was jet black, and almost covered with an expensive silk scarf. She was wearing dark glasses so large, Mina could scarcely see her face. She could just glimpse her lips, which were pale, without makeup. She was wearing a fur coat, a most beautiful dark fur coat that reached to midcalf. Her hands were gloved. Gold gleamed at her wrists, and Mina watched it glitter as she began greeting people. She touched someone here, reached up to kiss someone there, and Mina could see that this procedure both surprised and pleased them, because as the woman and her male companion passed down the line, those behind her glanced at one another, raised their eyebrows, and nodded to each other, as if in congratulation. She could feel it suddenly, an elation as sharp as scent in the air. Then she could smell an actual perfume, a burst of spring flowers, then the woman and her solicitous guardian-companion were moving forward, moving forward, with the others closing ranks behind them. There were little eruptions of words and laughter, so the air in the room felt buoyant, then a door swung open and they were gone.

The silence afterward was as tense as a wire; Star never once moved. He had not taken his eyes off the woman and the man from the second they entered until the second they were gone. He remained, statue-still, staring after them. His face was set, expressionless, and pale.

Mina did not dare to speak. She could see that he might still be angry, or he might be feeling pain, but either way there was something dreadfully wrong.

After a long while Mina plucked at his sleeve again. “Star,” she whispered. “Is that why we came here? To see them?”

“What?” He turned to look at her, then seemed to recollect who she was and where they were.

“Yes,” he said. “That’s why we’re here. That’s who I came to see. I have plans for them—that woman and that man.”

“Plans?” Mina looked at him hesitantly. The glitter in his eyes frightened her. “What kind of plans? I don’t understand.”

“You will. Three days from now. On Wednesday. You know how long I’ve waited for that day to come around? Twenty-five years, that’s how long.”

“But why—who are they, Star?”

“They’re my enemies.”

“What, that man and that woman?” Mina backed away a little because his eyes were now making her very scared. “Why, Star, why? Do you know them? Who are they?”